The electors shall have the power to remove from office by a recall election, the Mayor, and any Council Member of the Municipality in the manner herein provided.
If the Mayor, or any Council Member shall have served six (6) months of said Mayor's or Council Member's term, a petition demanding the Mayor's or Council Member's removal may be filed with the Clerk of Council who shall note thereon the name and address of the person filing the petition and the date of such filing, and deliver to such person a receipt therefor and attach a copy thereof to said petition.
Such petition may be circulated in separate parts, but the separate parts shall be bound together and filed as one instrument.
Each part shall contain the name and office of the person whose removal is sought and a statement in not more than two hundred (200) words of the grounds for the removal.
Such petition shall be signed by at least that number of electors which equals twenty-five percent (25%) in number of the electors voting for the office of Mayor at the last preceding regular municipal election.
Within twenty (20) days after the day on which such petition shall have been filed, the Clerk shall determine whether or not it meets the requirements hereof.
If the Clerk shall find the petition insufficient, the Clerk shall promptly certify the particulars in which the petition is defective, deliver a copy of the Clerk's certificate to the person who filed the petition, and make a record of such delivery.
Such person shall be allowed a period of ten (10) days after the day on which such delivery was made during which time the person may make such changes which makes the petition sufficient.
If the Clerk shall find the petition sufficient, the Clerk shall promptly certify same to Council, shall deliver a copy of such certificate to the Mayor, or the Council Member whose removal is sought, and shall make a written record of such delivery.
If such person shall not resign within five (5) days after the day on which such delivery shall have been made, Council shall thereupon fix a day for holding a recall election, not less than thirty (30) days nor more than forty-five (45) days after the date of such delivery.
Council shall cause notice of such recall election to be published on the same day of each week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper determined by the Council to be of circulation in the Municipality.
At such recall election, this question shall be placed upon the ballot: "Shall (naming the person whose removal is sought) be allowed to continue as (naming the position held)? ", with the provision on the ballot for voting affirmatively or negatively.
In the event a majority of the vote is negative, such person shall be considered as removed, such person's office shall be deemed vacant, and such vacancy shall be filled as provided in this Charter.
The person removed at such recall election shall not be eligible for appointment to the vacancy created thereby.
If the person is not removed at such recall election, no further recall petitions shall be filed against such person for a period of one (1) year following such election.
A removal by recall election shall not bar the person so removed from becoming a candidate for office in future elections.
(Amended November 8, 2022.)